How can corporate venturing elevate Mena’s entrepreneurial landscape?

How can corporate venturing elevate Mena’s entrepreneurial landscape?

Written by Kevin Holliday (Managing Director) and Mohand Nour (Strategy & Partnerships Director) of C3, a UAE-based startup accelerator powering aspiring change-makers by supercharging their ESG impact. 

The Middle East is home to some of the world’s most prominent sovereign wealth funds. Fuelled by a concerted push for economic diversification and widespread tech adoption, a vibrant venture ecosystem has emerged, welcoming startups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) into a thriving landscape. These tailwinds are creating a conducive ecosystem for small organisations and corporations to capitalise on their strategic positioning and harness innovation with an entrepreneurial lens. 

With corporations looking for ways to set a framework for their strategic investments, corporate venturing has emerged as a compelling alternative to traditional funding and partnership models in the region. This paradigm shift is not only reshaping the investment landscape but is also propelling innovation within large enterprises. Encompassing diverse collaboration avenues between large corporations and startups, corporate venturing is a gateway for innovation and gaining access to cutting-edge technologies. Examples range from corporate incubators and accelerators to internal and external hackathons and corporate venture capital (CVC) deployment, where corporate funds are directly invested in external startups.

Going down the CVC route 

The success of CVCs in fostering